Wrap-up insurance can be a powerful force in construction to reduce project costs. In a webinar between leading wrap-up administrator Consolidated Risk Solutions and Highwire, David Tibbetts, CSP shares his experience turning a failing OCIP into a significant source of project savings at an Ivy League University.
Dave and his team worked in EHS at the university, which sponsored a rolling OCIP to save on project costs. Relatively early on, the program claims costs increased to over $7.50 per $100 of payroll. At these rates, the OCIP was at risk of costing more than traditional insurance.
Hear the story now:
The University turned its wrap-up performance around by implementing the following best practices:
1. Assess contractors with deeper insights
Traditional prequalification isn’t always enough. Project teams need more than just a check-the-box exercise looking beyond metrics like EMR alone.
By implementing new programs to assess and evaluate contractor risks during the bid and award phase, owners and builders can make better-informed decisions and engage potential at-risk partners more effectively during pre-construction efforts and construction.
With the ability to get insights into each contractor’s risks using a tool like Highwire, project teams can ask critical questions before contractors begin work on-site, developing data-driven action plans when necessary.
2. Investigate and manage all claims closely to improve results and collaborate with all wrap-up partners to monitor trends together
Running a safe project should result in fewer and less severe injuries. But, when injuries occur, poor incident management can affect project outcomes. It’s important to remember that just because there are claims and incidents early on it doesn’t mean the wrap-up is doomed.
By understanding and using the services and expertise your carriers, brokers, and administrators offer, you can closely monitor and manage claims to protect wrap-up profitability and the success of your CCIP and OCIP.
Concerning incidents and claims management, wrap-up partners should ask the following:
1. Have we established clear protocols for reporting and investigating incidents, monitoring and managing claims, and sharing lessons learned?
2. Have we established a relationship with an occupational health provider?
3. How and where are injured workers being treated? Can we direct care?
4. What follow-up is required, who will follow-up, and how often?
5. Do we have, and do our trade partners have, return-to-work programs that provide us with an opportunity to get injured workers back to work when modified duty is available?
These points should be considered early, included in the wrap-up manual, and then executed to ensure that expectations are clear and that teams have the information they need to understand emerging trends and exposures and know what is necessary to turn performance around.
3. Increase the on-site presence of wrap-up partners
Partners—carrier, broker, CM, GC, wrap-up administrator, and trade partners—are critical to a project’s success. By ensuring these partners are engaged, owners and builders can monitor performance in real time, review aggregated data, and take corrective action immediately.
With these performance shifts, the University built a strong safety culture across all of its projects. The impact was felt beyond the projects participating in the wrap-up program. By the end of the project, claims costs had fallen from $7.50 to less than $2.00 per $100 of payroll.